The World Championship visited Germany for the first time and after the thrilling race at Silverstone two weeks previously much was expected. Alfa Romeo fielded four 159s for Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina, Felice Bonetto and local hero Paul Pietsch, while Ferrari ran Alberto Ascari, Luigi Villoresi and Piero Taruffi alongside Silverstone winner José Froilán González. In practice Ascari and González were fastest with Fangio and Farina sharing the front row while Villoresi, Taruffi and Pietsch were on row two. Farina took the lead at the start but in the course of the first lap was passed by Fangio, Ascari and González, while Pietsch was running fifth, although he went off on lap two and dropped to the back of the field. The Alfa Romeos soon ran into overheating problems and Farina retired, leaving Fangio to battle alone with the Ferraris. While the Alfas needed two stops, the Ferraris were able to go through with just one. Fangio lost the lead when he pitted but regained it when Ascari stopped. He then tried to create a gap big enough to stay ahead at his second stop but he was unable to do so and Ascari went ahead again. In the closing laps Ascari came into the pits unexpectedly for a tyre change but Fangio's engine was misbehaving and the Ferrari emerged still in the lead.

It was a second win for Ferrari and with González third, Villoresi fourth, Taruffi fifth and Rudolf Fischer sixth in a two-liter Ferrari, it was a 1-3-4-5-6 result for Enzo Ferrari's team.